A Hidden Key to the Futrue
by Lariren-Shadow
Summary: Faramir thinks of his daughter as a mirror image of himself. He realizes that she is, in some ways, but has her own personality.


A/N: Ok had this up last night, then realized did not put in a disclaimer. Sorry. Anyway same stuff still here, don't know if I will use this charactor again.  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Fararmir or anything from LOTR. I do own the charator I made up.  
  
Dedication: To my dad, George, who is going in for heart surgery. He has always been there for me and has always said I could do what I wanted to do. So there I am writing stuff.

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Faramir walked into the library, expecting it to be empty. He thought that, with the late hour, he could look around a little, get lost in the many rows like he did when he was a boy. What he saw was his eldest daughter, sitting in a chair by the fire, reading.

He thought all his children were in their rooms, but she had apparently not returned to hers after dinner. From the doorway, he watched her for a little while.

She was truly a mixture of himself and Èowyn. They had named her Lairënuriel. She loved to ride like her mother, but in ways she was more like him. She had dark blonde hair that would lighten to almost her mothers color in the summer, then become a darker hue when winter set in. Her eyes, however, were his. The same grey eyes, like his and his brothers, always looked back at him when he saw her. She had the same glint in them, that thirst for learning that he knew so well. If Mithrandir had met her, he would have said the same thing.

Even though he did not truly have favorites amoung his children, Lairënuriel had a special place in his heart. She was the second child, her older brother, Elboron, preceding her by four years. She had younger siblings as well, two sisters and one brother. She was special because she was his first daughter, like Elboron was special because he was his first born and first son. She was also the one whose eyes were like his. Elboron and one of his other daughters had the same color, but she had the spark in them.

She could have cared less what others thought of her or her actions. She did not care for dancing, or crowds. Like he, Lairënuriel could be happy alone with a book or just thinking by herself.

She was not all like him, though. She loved to ride, which her mother was grateful for. It was Èowyn's way of knowing that Lairënuriel had still inherited some of the Rohirric traits that Èowyn had. Lairënuriel also had more of a temper than her father, and she acted upon it more than he would have.

He looked at her again, and for a second saw the little girl he had read stories to when she was sick or in the company of her siblings. She was the one that would try to stay awake till the end of the story, even though her eyes would protest. He did not know where the time had gone; she was now seventeen, and no longer ran to either parent for advice. She no longer ran to them when Elboron would beat her in sparing, with her triumphs over him in archery practice, or when she finished a book before one of her siblings. No longer was she that little girl, but a grown woman who had to make her own decisions and find her place in the world.

He looked again and saw her staring into the fire, lost in thought, she had not heard him enter, or sensed his presence. Her book was now forgotten; lying idling in her lap, thumb on the page she had left off on. Lost in thought, like he had been when he was younger. She truly did act like him.

As if sensing her father's presences for the first time, she looked to the door. Her grey eyes shinned in the flickering light. She smiled and began to get up to put the book back. She knew that she should be in her room, but she wanted to read. She had not known what she wanted to read, so she came to the library, looking for a treasure hidden in the rows.

"Father, sorry, I did not mean to be here, I was just looking for something to read." Lairënuriel said.

"Stay, it is all right. I was here to do the same." He smiled. "Just do not tell your mother I let you stay, I do not think she would approve. What is it you are reading?"

"Something I found, it talks about the constellations." Lairënuriel replied. She had always been fascinated by what was depicted in the heavens. It was something she did not think her parents knew about. She would look out at them every night, watching them as they would slowly move or watch the pale light of the moon slowly illuminate the sky and the world below. She stole a glance to the window; the moon was in the corner of it, full and bright.

"You like to look at the night sky?" A nod of her head answered his question. "Would you show me what you think you see in it?"

She got up and walked to the window. Gazing at the cosmos, Lairënuriel thought of what she saw. What made it so desirable to look at? Why would it make her stand for hours at her window, gazing up. "I see our link to the past. Great things take place and are recorded in books, but the heavens contain the story, having seen them acted out. I see the great tales of our age in them, and what will come. That is what I see. The moon is what helps to light our path from past to present. The stars twinkle with the secrets of the past and the hidden key to the future." She finished still looking up, she was mesmerized by what she saw and had said.

Faramir looked at her. He was surprised by what she had said, not expecting to receive the answer the question he had posed. She had changed how he saw the sky, never had he looked at it in that light. "I had never looked at the sky in that light, through those eyes. It may seem that everyone sees something different when they look to the sky. One persons view is not enough and others must be heard to truly see what is in the stars. I think it is time for you to return to your room." He gave her back the book that she had been reading. "I think tomorrow I should see if there is not a journal some where for you to record your thoughts of what you see in things. It would help to bring one more person's ideas into the minds of others."

With that, Lairënuriel went off to her room. And Faramir smiled at his daughter who was so like him, but not in all ways as he had once thought.


End file.
